STARKVILLE — Highway 182 revitalization is rolling forward, as the city received another $20 million grant Friday to cover the project’s still-fluctuating price tag.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city will be opening bids Wednesday for the project. With the additional funds, she believes the city can complete the revitalization without reducing its scope.
“With that $20 million, we are comfortable that the bids will come in in such a way that will allow us to complete the project… from its original plan in its entirety,” Spruill said.
According to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker’s office (R-Mississippi), the city was awarded a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant for the project.
The project will reconstruct the eastern end of the Highway 182 corridor from Old West Point Road to Jackson Street, complete a portion of the streetscape on the western end from Henderson to Long Street and install pedestrian lighting and street trees for the entire length of the project area, a Tuesday email from the senator’s office said.
While the revitalization project was originally estimated to cost about $15 million, costs ballooned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and other economic factors. Aldermen rejected a low bid of more than $41.8 million for the work in August.
With bids so high, the city went back to the drawing board on the scope of the project, looking for ways to reduce costs.
In November, the city took ownership of a mile stretch of the highway between Highway 182 from Old West Point Road to Roosevelt Taylor Sr. Street from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, a move that would allow the city to put infrastructure beneath the road instead of in the adjoining rights-of-way.
Spruill said the change, which gave the city maintenance responsibilities for that area, should reduce the estimated cost in the next round of bids the city received. This round of bids should be opened Wednesday.
Even without the cost reduction, the city now has roughly $45 million secured for the project, including the RAISE grant, a $12.6 million Better Utilizing Investments to Development (BUILD) grant, and $10.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and state match devoted to the project’s water, sewage and drainage improvements. The BUILD grant comes with a 20% match from the city, while the city applied for the RAISE grant with no match, Spruill said.
Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk said without having opened the bids yet, she cannot confirm the city can fully fund the project, but she thinks “we’re well within the range that we need to be in.”
Will it be done in time?
But time is running out for the city to use the BUILD funding. The grant, which the city received in 2019, requires the project be substantially complete by June 2025 and fully complete by the end of 2026.
“I am hopeful that we will be able to make that 2025 timeline,” Spruill said. “But if not, I think there’s a whole lot of us in the same position that we might very well have some opportunity for potential extension. But we will absolutely move as rapidly as possible.”
Spruill said she does not know whether the RAISE grant will change the likelihood of receiving an extension on the BUILD grant, but it is possible that the first part of the project will be “BUILD grant work” while the second part completed will be “RAISE grant work.”
While some details on how the grants will interact have yet to be worked out, Spruill said moving forward with the Highway 182 corridor project will help the city’s economic development. She said she expects that, once the road starts to be revitalized, property owners in the area will also invest in their properties.
“I think it will bring economic development opportunities to that corridor that has not had them in quite some time, and we will see redevelopment and growth happen along that entire way,” Spruill said.
While every ward except Ward 3 touches Highway 182, the stretch of the highway designated for reconstruction between Old West Point Road and North Montgomery Street falls in Ward 5, while the area between North Montgomery Street and Jackson Street falls in Ward 2.
Sistrunk said the project will help to make the area a “central part of the city’s business corridor again,” though the construction process will require patience from citizens.
“It’s going to be a difficult construction period, we know that, and we hope people will be patient with us as we go through the construction process,” Sistrunk said. “But we’re also hopeful that it will be good for the city for a long, long time to get that area sort of rehabilitated a bit and more what I think all of us want from the city.”
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty said he applauds the mayor’s and legislators’ efforts in getting the funding for the city project, which will enhance the longevity of the road bed and surface, along with water and sewer infrastructure in the area.
“To be able to complete the project as designed and as modified will be a really, really nice thing for Starkville,” Beatty said.
City Clerk Lesa Hardin said the city will be opening bids for the work at 3 p.m. Wednesday on the second floor of City Hall. Aldermen are expected to consider a recommendation from city engineers at their next meeting.
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